Focus: Lebanon

The spotlight is fixed on Lebanon once again. The 2nd Offshore licence round was recently announced and the Lebanese offshore holds extraordinary hydrocarbon potential. Bids are due to be submitted by 31st January 2020.

Spectrum acquired 5,358 km² 3D data in 2012/13 and this covers the most prospective areas of the Levantine Basin. In addition, Spectrum’s comprehensive suite of East Mediterranean products includes 22,645 km of high quality 2D data, 5,526 km of which covers Lebanese waters. Most of these data was reprocessed through broadband and depth migrated from 2016 onwards.

Blocks in the western offshore display large, simple, 3-way dip- and 1-way fault-closed structures on modern 3D seismic, where blind, planar east–west faults cut long north–south folds. These features, with 400–500 m of closure, contain 1,000 m of Nile-derived deepwater fans, comprising high quality sandstones in very large traps. Whilst these are generally assumed to be filled by dry biogenic gas like the adjacent Leviathan and Zohr discoveries, actually a credible oil play from an oil-prone source rock directly underneath the reservoir suggests this undrilled acreage could make Lebanon the East Mediterranean’s oil capital.